Business Affairs
by Jordan Lee26
Summary: When Lucius Malfoy offered Hermione a position at Malfoy Industries, she jumped at the chance to work as part of a Global Empire. However, the position offered her, Draco and Lucius more than they could ever imagine. D/H. Contains graphic mature content.
1. Chapter 1

For most people, Monday morning was a begrudging day, where they unwillingly dragged themselves out of bed and into the office to begin another gruelling week at work. Most people weren't Hermione Granger.

Giving Crookshanks a quick scratch behind the ears she Apparated to the entrance point of the building that housed her office. The security consultant, a very butch witch called Marge, greeted her with the same contempt she reserved for everyone.

"How was your weekend?" Hermione asked as she surrendered her bag and wand for searching before passing through the curse detection field.

"Fine," Marge grunted, satisfied that she wasn't a spy today, handed back her possessions.

"Have a nice day," She called back as she climbed into the elevator, earning yet another grunt from Marge.

Memos got on and off at every floor, and when the doors opened on the third floor, Hermione caught sight of her contact in the media department who looked like she might rush the elevator just to talk to her. She was silently glad when the doors whispered shut again.

"How are you today Miss Granger?"

"Very well Frank and how are you?"

"Not too bad at all," He replied, wheeling his mail cart into the elevator as she exited, "Not curses to speak of today."

"Well they say that no news is good news."

"That they do."

Once he was gone, Hermione threw herself into the fray. She saw no less than three staff jump to their feet seeing which could reach her first.

"Hermione they cancelled production on the first prototype."

"Jane you know very well that's not under my control," She said but continued before Jane had a chance to reply, "However, I know you don't want to deal with him so just write up a report and send the documents to Delia and I'll make sure that it's seen to."

"There's a production error on a mass shipment out of the Scotland factory."

That stopped her dead in her tracks, "What?"

"The new potion, which was meant to be blue, is now purple and makes you grow hair in funny places."

"Please don't tell me this Steve, I haven't even had my coffee yet. I need to hear only good news."

"Well, I have cancelled production and have booked a Portkey up to the factory this afternoon to talk to the research team."

She continued towards her office, "Send me a Patronus when you get there and know what's going on."

"Miss Granger?" A timid girl called Marie said after Steve left her.

"Keep up Marie, time spent idle is wasted."

"I was just wondering if you could help me with these reports I'm meant to be doing."

Hermione sighed, "I'll have one of the team heads sit with you and go over everything with you again but Marie I need you to take plenty of notes and not be scared to ask questions when you don't understand something. I need you to be a fully functioning member of team as soon as possible."

"Yes, I'm sorry."

"Okay, just go back and do your best."

"Morning Hermione," Delia said when she broke through the partitions that separated her office from the teams she oversaw.

"Good morning Delia," She picked her mail up off the corner of Delia's desk, her ever efficient assistant had already opened it and sorted it by importance.

"I have your schedule for today and Mr. Malfoy would like to see you in his office."

"Senior or junior?"

"Junior."

Hermione looked over at Malfoy's assistant, busy scribbling on a piece of parchment, the door to Malfoy's office was firmly closed. "Can you put this on my desk and get me a cup of coffee please."

"Of course."

"Morning Samson, Draco in?" Hermione asked.

"He is," Samson informed her without looking up from his memo, "Go on in."

She knocked on the door in the spirit of manners before pushing it open.

Draco was sitting station behind his huge antique desk, in front of him were piles of parchment pertaining to current accounts and future investment opportunities spread before him. Hermione would call it a disaster but he referred to it as organised chaos.

"I'll call you back," He flicked his wand at the fire effectively cutting off whoever he had been talking to. "Good morning Granger."

"You wanted to see me?"

"I did," He got to his feet, grabbing a folder as he went. Hermione noticed that he'd finally given into his mothers nagging to get his hair cut. He suit was a favourite of his, black with a faint green pin stripe through it, indicating that he had an important meeting at some point.

"What's this?" Hermione looked at the folder, it had 'designs' written on it carefully in print that clearly wasn't Draco's.

"New investment proposal, all about ladies fashion so I figured that, being very stylish, you would be better at making a decision on this one."

"I'll look into it," She replied, "Was there anything else?"

He pushed her against the door and crushed his mouth on hers, his hands explored her slender body.

She responded, fisting her hands in his hair, deciding that she didn't like it shorter at all.

"I want you," Draco mumbled against her mouth, his movements were more desperate than before. He grabbed at her knee length skirt and began sliding it up her legs until his hands found her creamy flesh.

Hermione's own hands searched out his belt buckle as she tried desperately to free him. Belt, button, zipper and his pants fell to his ankles. She wasted no time dragging his briefs down and letting them follow to the floor.

It wasn't long before Hermione's own black, Victoria's Secret, lace panties joined Draco's clothing. He lifted her and she wrapped her legs around his waist, taking him into her in one full thrust.

She cried out, tilting her head towards the ceiling while Draco kissed her neck and sort out the right rhythm. Slow at first, then faster until they would both tumble over that blissful edge.

This was one of the things that Hermione loved about Monday morning. She wasn't sure if it was the excitement of sneaking around behind everyone's back, or the fact that Draco was amazing at what he did, but as she rode towards climax, she was willing to admit to herself that this was the best reason to get out of bed.

The orgasm ripped through her and she dug her perfectly manicured finger nails into the back of Draco's neck. He followed soon after, almost failing to continue holding her up through his immense pleasure.

Slipping out of her, Draco set her back on her feet and they laughed together.

"What have you got on today?" She asked, fetching her panties and stepping back into them.

"I have a meeting with my father to discuss my future. Then I'm going to look into that Quidditch team we bought last month. See if the investment is looking like it might be worth it. How about you?"

"Well, apparently there's an error in potions and the team leader is off to Scotland to fix it, thus I will be pouring through the reports and files to see what went wrong. As it is I might have to take and emergency Portkey up there and see what's what. Then I'm meant to be liaising with your mother regarding the upcoming fundraiser for the war veteran's fund."

The way Hermione said 'liaising' told Draco that it was his mother's idea and not Hermione's. Never-the-less, she did her job and did it well.

Hermione checked her reflection in the glass of Draco's well stocked liquor cabinet to make sure her perfectly applied make up was still perfect and that her hair wasn't out of place.

"Are you free at lunch?" He asked her, returning to his desk.

"Unless I'm in Scotland, I am free for lunch."

"Fantastic, shall we meet in Diagon Alley then to go over our monthly projections rather than spend the afternoon in that stuffy board room?"

"Sounds like a plan," She grabbed the file from the floor where it landed during their tryst and opened the door, "I'll meet you here at one then?"

"Sure."

~*

Hermione wanted to rip out her hair and it wasn't even ten am yet. Everything with the potion was in order on parchment, so where on Earth was the problem occurring?

She was just about to get on the Floo to the factory manager when Delia stuck her head in the door, "Sorry to interrupt but a Patronus arrived from Steve saying he believes that he's found the source of the problem but he's going to stay in Scotland over night and file a full report with you tomorrow."

"Okay, excellent."

"Also an owl arrived from Mrs. Malfoy. She would like change your appointment to eleven am."

"Of course she would," Hermione muttered, "Owl her back and tell her that will be fine."

Once Delia was gone, Hermione scrubbed her hands over her face. She would have to go through her notes for the fund raiser and put off finding who would be fired when the production mishap was unravelled.

Narcissa Malfoy was nothing but a thorn in her side. Lucius had known that it would have been a deal breaker to tell her that part of her job description would be dealing with Narcissa on a regular basis and conveniently neglected to inform her until after she signed the contract.

Thankfully Narcissa worked more with the media department than with Hermione.

She had just opened her file when the fire signalled that she had a call, "Yes?"

"Tell me you are free tonight."

"Hi Ginny," Hermione said dryly, "I'm fine thanks and how are you?"

"Yeah, yeah," Ginny rushed on. "Well? Are you free?"

"I believe I am. Why?"

"There is this amazing party on tonight and you just have to come?"

"Who has a party on a Monday?"

"Soon to be university graduates," Ginny sang, "Please come."

"Ginny I don't go to university anymore. I graduated and live in the real world now."

"Yeah but smart guys your age do still go to university and there are some good looking healers I know would be interested in meeting you."

"I have a job."

"So, Harry has a job and he's still coming with me."

"Harry is off on injury leave. He should be resting."

"He wasn't hurt that badly Hermione." Ginny replied but she couldn't quite mask the concern in her eyes. "Anyway the time off is just the standard requirements of the ministry. He'll be up hunting Death Eaters again in no time."

"I'm sure that he will. I however have to have a morning tea with Narcissa Malfoy in an hour and am under prepared. If you don't mind..."

"Yeah okay, I will see you tonight."

"No you won't."

With a wave of her wand, Hermione disconnected Ginny before she had a chance to object and went back to work.

~*

"Malfoy Industries is a very important part of the Wizarding world Draco and as acting CEO of the company you will be expected to conform to certain standards."

Draco sighed, "How many times are we going to have this conversation? I'm conforming, I show up to the office every day and I'm sober."

"Yet you still go out on weekends and drink like a filthy pirate while sallying young women." Lucius stated, and then added, "Thankfully we've found an assistant that you're not interested in shagging against a bookcase."

"Yeah, because he's a bloke," Draco thought briefly of Hermione, her strong legs wrapped tightly around him as he took her against his office door. Lucius would never ever suspect that they would be doing anything of the sort when they visited each other's offices.

"I will be retiring soon and you will take over. I want you to be professional as much out of the office as in it."

"I will do my best."

"Are you boys going to be long?" Narcissa sailed onto the patio where Draco sat with his father. She ran a hand threw his hair, "It looks much better now that you've had it cut."

"Thank you mother," Draco said, "Are we done here father?"

"I suppose that we are. I will expect to see you and Miss Granger first thing tomorrow morning for our monthly productions report."

"Naturally," Draco climbed to his feet.

The door bell sounded off in the background and Narcissa patted him on the arm, "Speaking of Miss Granger that will be her now."

A house elf appeared at the door, he cleared his throat and then announced Hermione. She thanked him politely and took a few confident strides to Narcissa. They clasped hands and kissed on both cheeks.

Draco stifled a chuckle. He knew that the whole ceremony was his mothers doing. Granger would never greet her friends in such a formal manner. However, he also knew that it was a sign of welcome and peace coming from his mother.

"I'm glad you're here. Shoo Draco, unless you want to help me pick out china patterns."

From the look on Hermione's face, she wasn't interested in picking out china patterns either, "Thank you but I'd rather have my brain sawed in half."

"You haven't already?" Hermione quipped.

"No Granger, I just have more important matters to attend to. Like watching a goblin count galleons or interviewing candidates for your position once I take over management."

"Now Draco, play nice." Lucius warned.

Narcissa clapped her hands and the house elf appeared, "Please bring out new place settings and get my notes off my desk."

"Well I'll be going," Draco shook his father's hand and kissed his mother's cheek, "Granger."

"Malfoy," she nodded and tried not to smile when he winked at her and then Disapparated.

"I'm thinking Lavender," Narcissa announced and Hermione watched Lucius pale.

"I'm not sure that Lavender would work with the theme. It is a war veteran's fund raiser. What about strong golds?"

Lucius nodded then turned on his heal and fled before he was roped in for his opinion, leaving Hermione to Narcissa's mercy.

~*

She was running late, worse so given the fact that Narcissa didn't think that leaving her just to meet Draco was worthy of releasing her. She barged into Draco's office without knocking spouting apologies.

He held up one finger to silence her before rapidly firing off French towards the fire place.

Hermione followed the exchange perfectly, taking a seat on the antique leather couch while Draco finished up his call. Several times she had found herself completely naked with him rising over her on that couch during many of their late working nights. The thought made her blush then smile.

She completely missed that Draco's call was now done and that he was watching her with keen interest. "What are you thinking?"

"Nothing at all."

"Yes you are. I know you better than you think I do." He crossed to her, grabbed her shoulders and pulled her to her feet. "You're thinking about me and all the nasty little things I can do to you. How I can make you scream."

"Maybe I am," She shoved his hands away, "But I am not interested in doing anything with you right now. I'm hungry, we have a meeting and I have to Portkey to Hogwarts at three thirty so if you don't mind."

Draco smirked at her then lead the way to the fire place, he threw in some Floo powder and climbed in the fire, "Diagon Alley."

She followed after him through the flame and found Diagon Alley bustling with people. Parents, eagerly preparing for the end of the school year when their children would return home and demand their time, workers on breaks and tourists, lots of tourists.

"Why are you going to Hogwarts?"

"I have a meeting with Professor McGonagall."

"What for?" Draco led her towards his favourite restaurant where they were greeted by a head waiter, "It's a nice enough day, how about we dine in the courtyard?"

"Yes okay," She agreed. Once they were seated and the head waiter shuffled off she continued, "What's with the twenty questions?"

"You meeting with Professor McGonagall wasn't on your schedule for today."

"No, because I am part of the past pupils board and was invited in a social capacity rather than a professional one. However, I dare say that she will ask me to use my position within this company to help her attain something."

"Fair enough."

"Hermione?" She looked up into the eyes of her friend and former lover. His red hair stood up in all directions and caught the sun, "Lunch meeting?"

"Ron," She stood and leant over the small rope fence to kiss him gently on the cheek. "How are you feeling? Ginny said that you were injured."

"Oh I'm alright I guess. No major damage."

"That's good. You look well."

"We all look really well," Draco added drily, "Now if you don't mind, we have many matters to discuss. Some of us have empires to run."

"Instead of rotting in prison where you deserve to be," Ron bit back earning a reassuring pat on the back from Hermione.

"I'll see you at The Burrow on Sunday?"

"You will."

When he was gone Hermione put her head in her hands, "Thank you for getting rid of him."

"How long ago did you break up again? He really needs to move on."

"We broke up not long after graduation from Hogwarts. He went into Auror training and I went partying."

"I never saw you partying in Uni."

Hermione scoffed, "You never saw anything in Uni, and you were always blind drunk."

"Oh yeah," Draco laughed at the memory.

"Anyway, things have never really been the same since then."

Draco nodded and opened the file that he had brought with him. Hermione reached into her bag and copied his action.

"Oh did word come from Scotland?"

"Apparently everything is fine up there. Steve, head of department is up there running the show and I plan of firing who ever messed up."

"What exactly went wrong?"

"Clearly someone dropped a jar of ills bane into the mixture. It's going to end up costing us millions."

"Well if that's the case, then you'll have to race my father to firing."

"Oh he's not robbing me of that pleasure."

Laughing, Draco cast his eyes over his own list, "Right, we have Paris next week to look at that business."

"D'Arcy Maclean, a former employee of Malfoy Industries if I am correct."

"You are. I think the amount is far too much for the company of his size, I have a feeling that we will be in negotiations with him over this for a while."

"Fair enough," Hermione ticked that off her list of things to discuss.

"Did you get to look at that folder?"

"It's on my list of things to do the second that work slows down a little bit."

"Well I can't really look at it and go, 'yes looks good we'll invest,' because I know absolutely nothing about women's fashion, put the models in front of me though and we are good."

"Yeah go figure."

"Right well, we have a meeting with the Weasels on Friday."

"Do you have to call them that?"

"Well I don't know about you but I'm really looking forward to sitting in a room with you and awkward boy while the other two witnesses pretending that nothing's going on."

"Calm down Draco."

The waiter came back and handed them each a menu, "Would you like to see today's specials?"

"No."

"Yes," Hermione said at the same time.

They glared at each other a moment.

"I'll have a glass of chardonnay to start with and if you could come back in a few minutes."

"I'll have a Fire Whiskey," Draco added and the waiter left.

"How was your father today?"

"Oh full of disappointed warnings, 'Being the CEO comes with responsibility Draco,' I was a prefect at Hogwarts for crying out loud."

"And you handled that famously."

"You loved it."

"I most certainly did not."

"Whatever," Draco muttered.

The waiter came over again, "Ready to order now?"

"I'll have the Creaser Salad," Hermione said, handing him back the menu and taking a sip of her wine.

"I'll have steak and potatoes," Draco said.

"Very good," The stuffy waiter said and walked off.

"We are such creatures of habit, we should just walk in as say 'The usual thanks'," Hermione commented.

Draco nodded and turned his attention back to his list.

~*

Once again, Hermione found herself running tragically late. By the time her meeting with Draco deteriorated into name calling, Hermione had very little time to run home, change and get to the department of registered travel.

"Hermione Granger," She panted when she ran full fledge into the counter.

"ID," The bored woman behind the counter said.

Hermione flung her bag open, pulled out her purse and flung her ID at the woman who scanned it.

"You're late."

"You don't say," She snapped.

"Through the doors on your right," She pointed, "Next."

Hermione hurried through the doors where heaps of people were seated on plastic chairs waiting for their Portkeys to be ready.

"Granger," A wizard called over the chatter.

"Yes here," Hermione rushed forward.

"Have a nice trip."

"Thanks," She muttered before grabbing a hold of the metal cylinder. There was the familiar hook feeling behind her belly button and she found herself outside the gates to Hogwarts.

* * *

AN: I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing here. I do not have any business knowledge outside of listening to my sister go on about hers occasionally. So basically I'm just making it up as I go along, hopefully it will make enough sense to follow well enough.


	2. Chapter 2

Headmistress McGonagall was patiently waiting in the Entrance Hall when Hermione hurried up the front stairs.

There were students bustling around everywhere, each one of them trying to be the picture perfect Hogwarts attendee in the presence of their teacher.

"I am so sorry," Hermione said as she dodged a pair of second years and clasped McGonagall's hands, "I've had meetings and things just falling apart all day."

"You should have called and cancelled," The old woman replied.

"Not at all, besides I was dying to see the school, it looks much the same yet quite different."

"Well a few touches here and there but mostly it's the same old castle. How have you been?"

"Oh," Hermione let herself be lead back outside again, she could see smoke rising out of Hagrid's chimney and made a mental note to arrange dinner with him one night, "I've just been working hard, there's a lot that is expected as an employee of Malfoy Industries. And, might I add, there are a lot of industries, I completely understand where Draco was coming from when he used to brag about being rich."

"Yes well, just because he was valid in what he said doesn't mean that he was pompous in saying it."

"He is still just as pompous as ever, though I think that he's slowly learning the values of working for the money he throws around."

"One can only hope," McGonagall said, taking a seat on one of the beautiful stone benches in the courtyard.

Hermione sat down next to her. Her former teacher seemed beyond nervous, constantly wringing her hands and looking in different directions all the time.

"Okay," Hermione grabbed her hands and turned so that they could look each other dead in the eyes, "Why are you so nervous?"

"Well, I have a confession," McGonagall said, "I had a very specific reason for asking you to come out here."

"Because you want me to use Malfoy Industries to get Hogwarts something."

"Yes," She looked a touch stunned but then just shook her head, "You have always been too smart for your own good."

"Well, to be honest with you, I wouldn't have been too impressed if you hadn't come to me for whatever it is."

McGonagall laughed, "Well, it's not just for Hogwarts, it's for all the magical schools."

That threw Hermione off, she was expecting a request for a donation or something simple, but if it involved all of the schools that was a different matter.

"The other Headmasters and myself got together for a meeting and we agreed that it's important for all of our students to mix and get to know each other."

"I completely agree."

"Since the events of the last Tri-wizard tournament mean that we will never conduct that competition ever again, we were thinking about an interschool Quidditch competition instead."

Hermione let the thought process for a minute then allowed herself to get excited about it, "Are you serious?"

"Yes."

"Harry and Ron are going to be so jealous."

McGonagall chuckled.

"I have to say, this is one of the best ideas I've ever heard. It will also allow mixing of the houses if you have one team made up of members from each."

"We will, but Hermione, it's not an affordable exercise."

"I can imagine that it isn't."

"There are team uniforms, equipment, travel expenses and we will also need a department set up to handle such things. It's a good idea but we need the Galleons to pull it off."

"And that's where Malfoy comes in."

"Do you think that you can help?"

"I know that I definitely want to help," Hermione studied the courtyard, "Narcissa and I organise fund raisers all the time. Somehow I don't think that a simple dinner is going to cut it this time though."

"What have you got in mind?"

"What if we had a charity Quidditch match?" She was on her feet now, pacing around and gesturing wildly, "We could have celebrities come along and play each other. I bet it would take me about two seconds to talk Harry into playing. I can also get Viktor to play, and for that matter, Draco just bought a Quidditch team in Northern Ireland."

"He bought a whole team?"

"He might have won them in a bet at the local tavern but yes we own a Quidditch team."

McGonagall jumped up, "You will really do this?"

"You will need to organise a proper proposal, and I will have to go and talk to Lucius, but hopefully once I get Draco on my side, it will be the easiest job ever."

"Thank you so much Miss Granger."

"Please call me Hermione."

"As long as you call me Minerva."

"Deal," Hermione was beaming. She was doing something good for magical education and this time she knew that she wouldn't be locked in a courtyard with Narcissa choosing the perfect coloured napkins.

"Now, you must come upstairs and have some afternoon tea with me, Professor Longbottom has grown some interesting Squabble that makes fantastic cookies."

Hermione was a little bit reserved about having anything that Neville had made, but out of respect for her old classmate, she would choke them down anyway, "Of course."

~*

Draco sat in his large leather bound chair and rested his head on the desk. It was never too early in the week to start drinking, especially when your closest friends came round with the finest matured Elf Wine and some conversation that didn't revolve around stocks, companies or investment opportunities.

Showing up at work after was the mistake. Why hadn't Samson bought him that damn sober up potion yet?

He was considering laying down on the lounge chair and just going to sleep when Hermione burst through his office door, "I have got a proposal."

"Die Granger," He muttered wincing from the volume of her voice.

"What's wrong with you?"

"Wine, lots and lots of very expensive Elf Wine."

"Well, you have no one to blame for that but yourself. Do you want to hear my proposal or not?"

"But we hate each other and it would never work."

"Yeah you're so funny," She crossed the room, went around behind the desk and leaned on it, "So I went to see McGonagall yesterday."

"I don't care Granger get out of my office."

Hermione ignored him and kept talking, "Anyway the heads of the schools have been meeting up with each other and talking about how they can improve inter school co-operation and they've decided to hold Quidditch tournaments."

This seemed to peek Draco's interest because his eyes shot open and he found himself face to face with Hermione's Chanel covered backside, "What?"

"The only problem is that they need funding to make it happen. Travel between countries isn't exactly affordable these days and they will need to supply the students with brooms and uniforms."

"And old McGonagall thought that Malfoy could help?"

"Well it's unrealistic to just donate the money, Lucius would never approve of us throwing a few million Galleons at them, but I thought that we could hold a charity game."

Draco sat straight up in his chair, ignoring the spinning completely, "You are full of fantastic ideas."

"Careful Malfoy, that almost sounded like a compliment."

"I would do no such thing."

Hermione rolled her eyes, "What are you doing for lunch?"

"Worshipping you in any manner you like."

"Sounds promising."

When he reached for her she moved out of the way and Draco gave her a pitiful look like a man who had just been denied a glass of water when dying of thirst.

"Lunch," She said and left him to his headache.

She passed Samson on the way to her office, he had clearly just got back in from a run to the Apothecary.

"You really should start stocking that here," She said to him.

Samson just glared at her.

"Hermione," Delia said, "There was a call from Steven this morning, he's going to owl you a copy of his report later today and Lucius Malfoy called, he had to go to Rome this morning so your meeting with him has been cancelled."

"Fantastic," She entered her office and closed the door. There was a fresh cup of coffee on her desk and all of her mail in a neat pile.

Not really wanting to deal with all the bitching and complaining from the heads of the companies that operated under Malfoy Industries, she ignored the mail and went straight to the folder Draco had given her the previous day.

Expecting to find modest robe designs, which she had been presented with on more than one occasion in her ten months working for Malfoy, Hermione was pleasantly surprised when she opened it up and saw stunning evening wear.

The floor length ruby coloured dress was probably the best design to lead with. It was tight fitting and looked like it was made out of a very expensive silk, Hermione was in love with it already.

She flipped through the pictures, the best part of these designs is that they could also be sold on the Muggle market and that appealed to Hermione on many levels, mostly income based levels, but also as a victory for her background.

There was a proposal that came with the pictures, Hermione dropped them when she read the name, Pansy Parkinson.

~*

"So I finally managed to find the time to look through those designs," Hermione announced as she walked into Draco's office with Chinese take-away.

"Is that right," He replied not looking up from the document that he busy frowning at.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing," He got up and joined her on the couch.

"You have that look you get when you don't think an investment is worth it and are trying to figure a way out of doing it."

"I'm going over the specs for the Paris trip, it just doesn't look right."

"Come on, D'Arcy was a Hogwarts graduate."

"Oh and no one who went to Hogwarts ever turned out evil," Draco said dryly.

"Well I'm looking at one of them."

"Oi. I don't know there's just something that's not right here. It's like he wants to sell it, but he doesn't," He slipped a set of chopsticks out of their paper wrapping and taking the container that she offered him.

Hermione opened her own container and chopsticks and leaned back into the chair, "You don't know that he doesn't want to sell it. Could just be that he's vain enough to believe that it's worth more than it actually is."

"Yeah," Draco muttered, digging around in the rice and chicken dish in his hand. Something wasn't right, Draco Malfoy was no fool and he knew something a bit fishy when he saw it. Could the whole thing really just be about money?

D'Arcy was what they referred to as a 'disgruntled' former employee, one of those intelligent types who got offered the top positions straight out of University, sort of like Hermione, just not as much of a team player.

A Hogwarts graduate he might have been, but that wasn't a reason for the flags not to go up. Tom Riddle was a Hogwarts graduate and they all knew how famously that turned out.

However, Draco was ready to admit that he might have had outrageous suspicions of the man because he was trying to sell his new company to the very company that had dismissed him many years earlier.

"How come you didn't tell me that Pansy was the designer?"

"What?" He looked at Hermione like he had completely forgotten she was even in the room.

"Those dress designs, how come you didn't tell me that she was the one who made them?"

"I don't know Granger but I gather that you think that I didn't tell you deliberately as some ploy," He shrugged, "I was a bit busy if I remember correctly."

She remembered and her cheeks flushed a very deep red and she gave a sly smile. Hermione had every intention of having her legs wrapped tightly around Draco again at some point, but she want to be as mute on the when as possible.

There was no way that Draco missed the blush or the smile, this was one of their slightly more laid back lunch breaks, usually when they ate in his office, they fed on more than just food. Just the thought of her was enough to get Draco's blood pumping.

"Do you think that she will even agree to work with me?" Hermione asked, "The girl hates me with a fiery passion."

"You're not seventeen anymore, you're both grown up now, time get over past vendettas."

"I have no issue's here, she's the one who always walked around with a stick shoved somewhere dark. All I'm saying is that maybe you got the file for a reason, she doesn't want to work with me."

"Well too bad, I have more important things to do than stare at a dress and decide if it would sell to the general market."

"And you're saying that I don't have important things to do."

"Not at all, I'm saying that you're better at it."

While she wasn't going to keep arguing with him after he paid her a sort of compliment, she did narrow her eyes at him.

"Oh, don't forget that we have that dinner for that stupid opening this weekend." Draco said pointing at her with his chop sticks, "And whatever you do, do not bring a Weasley as a date. I will not be able to sit next to you and take the whole thing seriously."

"The Saint Mungo's Children's wing is a necessity these days and we donated a lot of money to that so you can just stop calling it a stupid thing right now and there is nothing wrong with the Weasley's."

"We don't get along and I'm not going to sit there and pretend that we do."

"Fine."

They ate in silence for a few minutes. Hermione furiously stabbed her chopsticks around in the box, she had lost her appetite. It seemed that Draco was profoundly good at killing the need to eat.

She had seriously considered asking George to go with her. He didn't mind getting his name out and about and since Angelina had announced she was pregnant, she wasn't all that keen on leaving the house but after Draco's warnings, he would have to stay at home.

"I'm sure that you'll find someone who enjoys being as bored as we do to drag along."

"I'll just take the lawyer."

"You mean the one you're seeing on the side?"

"The side of what? I have no one to betray."

"Yeah but it's not like you're seeing him in a relationship capicity and there's no way you're telling me that you didn't jump his over starched lapels on more than one occasion."

"You are just so pleasant," She said with just a hint of sarcasim.

Dumping her container on the table she got to her feet and made to leave the room but Draco was on his feet after her. He grabbed her arm and spun her around.

"Let go of me."

"No," He grinned, slipping his arms around her waist and pulling her flat against him, "You know that you want me, I know that you want me, right now."

"Whatever Malfoy," She replied but made no effort to get away.

He leaned forward as if he were going to touch his lips to hers but instead he let them graze her cheek in a line down to her throat where he nipped her skin so gently that it caused her shudder.

He smiled. She fisted her hands in his hair and kissed him fast and hard.

Draco was about to drag her to the floor and take every inch of her when there was a knock at the door followed by the door opening.

"Draco, are you in?" Lucius called out.

Hermione and Draco had never sprung apart faster in all their time of sneaking around like teenagers.

"Ah yes I am," He flopped into his seat and quickly grabbed the food again.

Hermione was still standing there like a deer caught in head lights when Lucius came right into the room and spotted her.

"Miss Granger," He nodded, "Good glad you're both here. Sorry I had to cancel this morning, trying time in Rome. I was hoping we could have our meeting now, I want to take Narcissa to France for a few days tomorrow."

Hermione cleared her throat, "Of course, I'll just get my notes."

Lucius watched her hurry out of the room, before turning to Draco, "How's things?"

"Fine."

"Good, good," He said and sat down, "Draco?"

"Hmm?"

"That shade of lipstick does nothing for you."

Draco swiped at his mouth furiously trying to get it off while Lucius shook his head.

* * *

Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. Special thanks to the reviewer who pointed out that I am acronym illiterate, that mistake has now been amended.

Also special thanks to my beta reader Nic, you're wonderful darling. If there are any more mistakes in this, you have permission to flog us both...

I know that the first chapter was a bit fast paced and I'm sorry for that, I promise that there was a valid reason for that... of which I shall inform you all of when I think of it.

Please review, I like shiny comments.

~JL.


	3. Chapter 3

It was dark by the time Draco finally Apparated into his apartment, he dumped wand, wallet and bag of work on the table and headed for the kitchen.

His mother had sent the house elves over to tidy the apartment while he'd been had at work and there were several stacked containers of ready to consume dinners in the refrigerator. Everything was pretty much sweet for him at the moment.

Taking one of the containers out, he grabbed his wand again and waved it around until the food was on the stove gently heating it's self through. There was nothing in the world that Draco hated more than cooking, so it was nice to have that done for him.

While he waited he looked out the large window and into the lights of London. He loved this apartment and even though his mother wept for a week when he moved out of the manor, he wouldn't have changed his mind for anything.

He took his dinner and sat at his dining room table so he could continue looking out the window while he ate. The bag of work he had bought home with him went completely ignored for the time being.

When he was done, he dumped the dished into the sink and headed upstairs to shower so that he would have the rest of the evening to really tackle the work that he hadn't managed to get to while at the office. He swore that he spent most of his time chasing up the twits who worked under him and couldn't wait until he could palm that responsibility off on someone else.

Soon he would be CEO, but what did that really mean? His father still worked very hard, just shy of sixty and the man was still running around Europe conducting all sorts of business dealings a lot of which he had no idea about.

Someone else would take his current position as shit fielder and they would report to him about the goings on and Granger... Well, she would just be there doing what she always did, working hard and baiting him.

Draco sighed, he wasn't foolish enough to think that Hermione would be content to be in that position for the rest of her career. She could easily become partner in her own company if she put in enough hours and he knew she would. He was just going to have try and find someone half as good.

~*

Hermione had put off seeing her friends one too many times, Ginny had looked positively furious when she called and told Hermione that she would come to dinner or suffer the consequences.

So there she was sitting at Harry's dining room table, Ron opposite her, Harry to her right while Ginny spooned vegetables onto their plates for them.

"Looks great," Hermione beamed at her.

"Thank you," Ginny replied, "The stove was being a bit temperamental this afternoon but I got it working again after a bit of tweaking."

Technically it was Harry's two storey cottage and Ginny was meant to live at the dorms, but Hermione knew that she spent all of her time with him. If Molly knew, Harry would probably have the living daylights hexed out of him.

"Thank you," Ron said when she served him.

"So how are things Hermione?" Harry asked, "We almost never see you."

"Oh, well mostly I've just been working."

"You work far too hard," Harry commented.

"Look who's talking," Ginny said giving him a sweet smile.

"Are you going to be at the Saint Mungo's party on Saturday?"

"Unless something comes up last minute, we'll be there." Harry told her.

"I'll be there," Hermione forked up some peas, she hated peas, but she knew that she would deeply offend Ginny if she didn't eat the whole plate worth of food so she put them in her mouth and chewed really quickly.

"Do you have a date?"

As soon as Ginny asked, Ron started choking on his meal. He had clearly had nothing to say until that point but was suddenly full of silent judgements.

"Are you okay Ron?" Harry asked jumping up and clapping his friend on the back.

She kept her eyes on Ron as his face turned the same violent shade as his hair, "I think that I'll take Christopher."

"Oh he's so good looking," Ginny said shooting her brother foul looks as he loudly cleared his throat.

"Is that the lawyer?" Harry asked screwing up his nose.

"The dumbass," Ron muttered.

"Oh shut up Ron," Ginny scolded.

The whole situation quickly became very awkward. Hermione was angrily stabbing carrots with her fork while Ron quietly fumed and Harry and Ginny shot each other looks over their dinner.

"Well," Ginny said putting down her fork and gently wiping her mouth on her napkin, "I have a bit of an announcement for you all."

With all eyes fixed on her, Ginny suddenly became very nervous, she shifted in her chair and searched Harry for moral support.

Hermione shifted her gaze from Ginny to Harry, she watched him nod. He was white as a sheet and looking somewhat terrified.

Ginny took a gulp of water, she tried to set it down steady but it sloshed over the rim.

"For goodness sake Gin, what is it?"

"I'm getting there Ron," She took a deep breath, "I'm pregnant."

For a few seconds, there was complete silence. Hermione and Ron shared the same look of complete and utter shock before all hell broke loose.

"Are you fucking insane?" Ron stood up so fast that his chair toppled over.

"No!"

"Mate," Harry was on his feet and had his hand on Ron's shoulder, "It's not like it was something that was planned."

"Did you tell mum yet?" Ron asked completely ignoring Harry.

"I'm going to wait."

"Wait until when? It's time to toilet train the baby?"

Hermione decided that it was probably best to stay out of the whole thing completely. She grabbed her wine glass off the table and retreated to the far side of the room. She knew that there was no reasoning with Ron and this really wasn't anything to do with her so she just made the decision to stay far, far out of it.

"There is a time and place for these things Ronald," Ginny screeched, "I want to sit her down and tell her properly. I wanted to tell you and Hermione first because you're our friends."

"You're not even married."

"We're going to get married," Harry announced.

It was the first time that Ron had bothered to notice that he was even there, "Oh yes? When are you planning on doing that? She's not even out of University yet!"

"I graduate in three weeks."

"And then we will get engaged and tell your mother."

"You'll bloody want to hope that I don't tell her for you," he warned pointing a finger right in Ginny's face.

"You bloody better not."

"I hate you Ron," Ginny cried and ran up the stairs.

Hermione sighed, she could almost see the steam rising out of Ron's ears. He looked like he was about to round on Harry and give him a good punch in the face for violating his little sister.

Ignoring them, she headed upstairs to the master bedroom, knocked once and then entered.

Ginny was laying on the bed crying into one of pillows. It was obvious that she had had a desired outcome for her little announcement and Ron had shot that all to shit.

"Don't worry about him," Hermione sat down next to her and ran a hand over her head, "You had to have known that he would over react to that news. To him you're still his baby sister, he doesn't see that you're all grown up now and capable of making your own decisions."

"He's a jerk," Ginny sniffed.

Hermione laughed. She looked around the room. It was very much Harry, she though, simple taste with his bed, and side table with lamps. There was a tall boy that matched all the other furniture and that was it. No doubt that Ginny would femme up the place when she moved in, which would be sooner than everyone had anticipated.

"How far along are you?"

"Twelve weeks."

"You didn't tell anyone?" Hermione found that she was more shocked at the time than she was by the actual news it's self.

"We wanted to wait until we were safe," She replied sitting up, "When I took the potion I was already five and a half weeks, I was so busy with Uni that I didn't even notice that I was very late. So I went to get it checked out and they told me how far along I was."

"So you'll have to rush your wedding then."

Ginny nodded, "The start of August at the latest. Will you be my bridesmaid?"

"What?"

"Please. I don't have any sisters, well Fleur and Angelina but they don't count really. You're my closest friend, please will you do it?"

"The surprises tonight just keep on coming."

"Hermione."

"Yes, I will be your bridesmaid."

Ginny squealed and threw her arms around Hermione, "Thank you so much. Oh and when I was at the maternity ward they asked me if I wanted to know the sex."

"Did you find out?"

"Yes."

"Oh Merlin," Hermione breathed deep, "Tell me."

"It's a boy."

A huge smile broke out across Hermione's face and she pulled Ginny in for a tight hug. She felt a few tears roll down her face. She always thought that she and Ginny would end up raising their families together as sisters but that dream was so far gone now that Hermione couldn't see it anymore.

There was a crashing noise followed by a loud bang down stairs, the two girls pulled apart and got up to go down stairs.

Harry was waving his wand around furiously, sending dishes flying back to the kitchen. There was a broken lamp on the floor and there was a red mark on Harry's cheek that looked suspiciously like he had taken a fist to it.

"Oh goodness what happened?" Ginny raced over to him and touched his cheek gently.

"Ah he was just angry. Luckily he still hits like a twelve year old girl."

"I'm going to kill him," Ginny yelled and grabbed her wand.

Harry grabbed her and wrestled the wand out of her hand, "It's okay Gin. He's not going to tell Molly and my face is tougher than it looks."

"And on that pleasant note," Hermione grabbed her handbag and cloak, "I shall be going."

"I'm sorry about dinner," Ginny said.

"Nonsense," Hermione waved her hand, "I never leave your home without a colourful story to tell people. This one however, I think might have to wait a few years until Ron calms down."

"Thank you for coming," Harry said giving her a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Anytime," The second she was out the door, she Disapparated.

~*

The events of the previous night were still stalking through her brain when she headed to work the next day. When Ginny dropped a bomb shell, she really dropped it hard.

Harry had called her at home before she had left for the office asking if Ron had called her. Apparently after he had blackened Harry's eye, he had disappeared from the face of the planet. Hermione had suggested that Harry give him some space, lots of space.

"Morning Hermione," Delia said.

"Hello," She replied grabbing her mail, "Coffee please and I want you to get me a meeting with Pansy Parkinson. Her grate number is in the file, call, don't owl and make sure she knows that she will be meeting with me and not Mr. Malfoy."

"Not a problem."

"Thanks."

She shut herself in her office and was sitting there for about ten minutes before the door opened and Draco waltzed in.

"Don't you knock?"

"Being polite doesn't always get you what you want."

"I don't have time for the things that you want right now."

"I want a meeting with Weasley Wizard Wheezers."

Hermione dropped the letter she was reading and glared at him, "What game are we playing here?"

"They are looking for investors," He shrugged, "I know this because I'm looking for places to throw money in a hopes that it makes me billions of Galleons in return."

"And you want to invest in a joke shop?"

"Yes," He slowly came around the desk and leaned on it the same way she was prone to doing when she visited him, "I was lead to believe that you are on first name bases with the three partners."

"That I am," She leaned back and studied him as if she would be able to see through his brilliant plan but from the look in his eyes, it was all about money.

"Set me up a meeting?"

"What's in it for me?"

"Well Granger if you want me all you have to do is ask."

"What?" She blinked and shook her head when she realised exactly what he meant, "I meant business wise, I do all the work and you get all the credit."

"We share the credit," He said getting up, "And I'll make sure you get an extra big bonus in your Christmas stocking this year."

"You are the only person I know who can make 'Christmas stocking' sound dirty."

He winked at her, "I have a meeting with our lawyer otherwise I'd stuff your stocking now for you."

"Goodbye Malfoy," She turned her attention back to her mail.

He chuckled as he headed for the door, "Call Weasley."

"I will."

When he was gone she got up and went to the fire place, she considered briefly calling George but thought that she would give Ron a day too cool down before she started begging them to come in for meetings and negotiations with Draco.

Instead she took a hand full of Floo powder and threw it into the fire, "Colt, Bourke, Marks and Reeves law office."

"Morning," A fresh young receptionist appeared, "How may I direct you?"

"Christopher Marks please."

"One minute," She waved her wand and the call was redirected.

"Marks," Christopher said without even looking up from the files he was tossing into a bag.

"It's Hermione," She said.

He dropped what he was doing at once, "Hey, I was hoping that I would hear from you."

"It's your lucky day," She smiled at him sweetly, "I was wondering if you were free on Saturday night?"

"Free as a bird."

"Want to come to the opening of the brand new Saint Mungo's children's ward with me?"

"Of course I do," He said, "I have to get over to the Ministry right now for this hearing, but do you want to have you assistant owl my assistant all the details and I will make sure that I show up on time?"

"I can definitely get that done for you," She was relieved more than anything, "And you should probably be twenty minutes late, you know I'm never on time."

He chuckled, "That's true enough. See you then."

After he was gone, Hermione sat back in her chair, her first order of business was now taken care of and she felt better about it. All she had to do was get another fifteen hours into her eight hour day and everything would be fine.

She set her quill up to take down her dictation as she read found things to reply to in her mail and started her work for the day.

* * *

AN: Again a huge thanks to those of you who reviewed, I really appreciate you taking the time to do so.

This chapter hasn't been over by a beta so I'm terribly sorry if there are mistakes, I did my best but my darling Nic has gone MIA, she was a little under the weather so recovery time is probably essential.

So I heard rumours that JK is doing a HP encylopedia... does anyone know if that's true because I would love one. Right now I'm working off wikis, which is fine. I'm trying to stay as much to canon as possible outside the H/D relationship.

Anyway enough from me.

Take care everyone.

~JL


	4. Chapter 4

AN: First of all I would like to sincerely apologise for not getting this up sooner. If you want excuses I have them, if not, just skip this next part. About two weeks ago, I started having these weird fevers where I would get really hot then really cold, basically I spent four days putting clothes on, then taking them off then putting them back on. So I went to the doctors and apparently I had an infection in my mouth. I was put on antibiotics and told to see a dentist. Upon going to the dentist, I learned that my tooth had to come out, so the very next day they ripped it out and after that, came the pain. I went back to the dentist which did nothing then to the ER where they shot me up with pain killers and gave me some magic pain be gone pills to take for the rest of the week. By the end of that course I was so stoned out of my brain I didn't know which way was up. Thankfully, when the effects of the pain killers wore off, there was no longer any pain, and since then I've spent six days trying to get the momentum back and finally finish this chapter.

I'm really really sorry if there are one hundred mistakes in this but I have only done one really quick edit. I just wanted to get it up because you have already been waiting too long. Thank you so much for your patience. If you no longer want to read my story because of the long wait, I respect that decision.

Finally a big thank you to those of you who reviewed the last chapter, it means the world to me.

Enough from me, on with the story...

* * *

"What are you planning on wearing?" Narcissa asked as she fished through Draco's wardrobe.

"I don't know mother," He replied, ignoring her demands to get out of bed and start the day, it wasn't even nine AM yet and he had been out late drinking with Goyle.

With one swift movement he pulled the pillow from under his head and firmly planted it over his eyes.

"Benita will be wearing a lime green," Narcissa informed him, "I will be in Emerald green and no doubt Miss Granger will be wearing something red or gold."

"Not everyone wears just their house colours these days mother," His voice was muffled by the pillow.

"Please," She scoffed, "I think that you should go with the traditional black dress robe."

"No."

"There is nothing wrong with dress robes."

"They're old fashioned."

"Draco Malfoy, the Minister for Magic is going to be at this event, all eyes will be on this family and I want you to look respectable."

"Fine," He grumbled, "Will you go away now?"

"Of course," She stole the pillow off him and ignored his protests, "I am going to meet my dress maker anyway then I have a luncheon with my sister."

"I don't care mother."

"One day I'm going to be dead and you'll regret this moment."

"Out!"

~*

"What are you wearing?"

Hermione was in her walk in robe randomly tossing dresses out the door, "I have no idea."

Ginny climbed off the bed where she had set herself up for a bit of a fashion show and wandered over to study the selection currently laying on the floor.

"I have nothing, if I was thinking properly then I would have gone shopping yesterday rather than just letting it get this far. What are you wearing?"

"Black," She replied simply.

"What no rainbow, floor length satin number?"

"Black is slimming."

"Oh and you're really stacking it on." Hermione commented grabbing an Oscar Delarenta dress and launching it after the others.

"Isn't this a designer?"

"They are all designers," She sighed sinking to the floor amongst all of her designer shoes. "I have a million dresses and thousands of shoes and absolutely nothing to wear. What is wrong with me, surely this is some kind of horrible sickness."

She grabbed a pair of Jimmy Choo's and stuck her head out the door, "Look at these shoes, they cost five hundred pounds and I love them, they are a work of art, worth every bit of their ridiculous price tag."

"They are very nice shoes, you should wear them tonight, I know that you want to after that very nice plug you gave them."

"I can't." She huffed and threw them onto the pile of dresses, "I wore them to the wand makers association ball last month."

"And how many wand makers are going to be there to judge your shoes?"

"Narcissa Malfoy."

"She makes wands?"

"Ha, you're so funny," Hermione climbed to her feet again and started flipping through the dresses left on their hangers, "When was the last time you saw me in this?"

The dress was a floor length midnight blue number with glitter all over the bodice, from the waist it exploded into a few layers of rather aggressive tulle.

"Ministers Birthday party," Ginny said and promptly had the dress thrown at her.

"I need to go shopping," She declared, marching out of the wardrobe wearing only one Manola Blanhick pump.

"We only have three hours until we need to be there," Ginny called after her, "Just wear the red one."

"Which red one?"

The one that you wore to graduation, it was nice and I bet that Narcissa won't remember it."

Hermione scratched her head and considered for a minute. Narcissa would have been at that graduation but it was doubtful that she would remember what everyone was wearing, "Can I wear these shoes with it?"

"Providing you find the other one, then I'm sure that you can." Ginny found the dress in question for Hermione and handed it to her, "There you go. It's perfect."

"Thank you, I'm sorry for being a basket case."

"A what?"

"Crazy person."

"Oh that's fine," Ginny pat her arm, "However we should probably get started or we're going to be working on that birds nest you call hair well into the dinner."

"Stupid hair," Hermione muttered and stat down at her dress and waited for Ginny to start covering her head with thick products.

"So," Ginny said as she got her wand ready, "I was wondering if you would be able to do me a favour."

"That really depends on how big that favour is."

"Well, graduation is in three weeks and I'll need to start looking for a job."

"I thought that you wanted to go to work for witch weekly so that you can take everything that me and Harry say and just put it into print."

"Actually I know that there is a position available in the media department at Malfoy Industries and I was wondering if you would put in a good word for me if I applied for it."

"I believe that I can do that," Hermione nodded, "But what about the baby?"

"There is that, but the baby isn't coming for another six months and I'll need to fill my time with more than just making that horrible spare room into a decent nursery."

"I'm more than happy to put in a good word just make sure that you cover all of your bases. That's all I ask. Tell them that you're having a baby if you go in for an interview. Do not make me look bad."

"It's impossible to make you look bad," Ginny said, "You're like a walking stream of knowledge."

Hermione laughed at her and then scrubbed her hands over her face, "And don't make my hair look bad either."

~*

As requested, Christopher showed up at Hermione's apartment twenty minutes late. She was still wearing slippers on her feet when she pulled the door open.

"Come in, I promise that I am almost ready."

"I brought you some flowers," He called after her as she blurred back towards her room, her dressing gown billowing behind her.

"That's so sweet of you."

"I'll just put them on your table and you can put them into some water later." Christopher wandered around her apartment. It was a small one bedroom number, with a large dining room table that was covered in work papers. The thing that really sparked his attention though was the clearly Muggle devices that sat along one of the walls.

"Is this a television?"

"Yeah," Hermione replied, "My parents bought it for me when I moved in here. I don't really watch it all that much but it's the thought that counts. Plus DVD's give them something nice that they can buy me for Christmas and my birthday without really trying all that hard."

"Nice," He turned around to see her standing in the door way wearing a strappy red, floor length dress that hugged her hips. Her hair was mostly pinned tight to her head but a few tendrils fell around her shoulders. Finally her shoes looked like arch breakers but she managed to stand without even the smallest sign of distress.

"Do I look okay?"

"You look absolutely stunning. How is it that you always manage to find something drop dead amazing to wear every time I take you out."

"I have a lot of clothes."

He kissed her cheek and offered her his arm, "Shall we?" He asked when she linked her arm through his.

"Into the breach," She muttered.

~*

Narcissa Malfoy was busy flitting between social cliques, making sure that everyone knew exactly who she was, Lucius, however, had cottoned onto the first person he passed and ventured into a very deep conversation to avoid being dragged through the thousands of people present.

Draco looked bored, he stood next to his father and avoided listening to a debate on the new troll regulations. He was about to grab another glass of champagne off a passing tray when he caught sight of Hermione entering the room with her date.

Once again she had invited Christopher Marks to come along. No matter how much she denied their involvement, it was clear that there was a little bit more than just a fall back date opportunity.

"Excuse me," Draco said and was completely ignored by both men.

"Draco, did you know that there's little soaps in the bathroom shaped like potion bottles?" Benita informed him. She slipped her hand in his and leaned her head on his shoulder. Her long blonde hair was dead straight and made her look much like a gold digging whore in Draco's opinion.

"That's really fascinating," He gritted his teeth and tried not to sound bitter, "If you don't mind I have to go and greet my partner."

Narcissa had already swooped in and started chatting away to them.

"Have I seen this one before?" Narcissa was saying when Draco approached with Benita.

"I don't think so," Hermione replied, smiling sweetly.

"Granger, Marks," Draco held his hand out to Christopher who shook it, more out of politeness than anything else.

"This is Benita Foxworthy," Narcissa said when it was clear that Draco wasn't going to introduce her, "She's a Beaubaxtons sweetheart."

"Nice to meet you," Hermione raised her eyebrows at Draco, knowing all too well that it was a clear set up, there was no way that this woman would catch Draco's interests long enough for him to buy a cocktail let along take her out on a date.

He rolled his eyes at her in response.

"There's Harry," Christopher pointed across the room where Harry and Ginny were standing hand in hand talking to the Kingsley Shacklebolt.

"We shall talk again later," Hermione nodded at Narcissa hoping that they would be able to avoid the woman for as long as humanly possible.

They hadn't even been talking with Kingsley for more than ten minutes when Draco was back, he walked casually passed the group brushing his hand gently along Hermione's back so that they would be the only two who had been aware of the contact.

She shivered but tried to look casual about it, no one appeared to be looking at her strangely. When she looked up at the direction Draco had headed off in, he was standing at the hall way that lead off to the bathrooms and the cloak check in.

There was a silent understanding between them before he disappeared down the hall.

"I'm just going to use the restrooms," Hermione whispered to Christopher and untangled her hand from his, "Excuse me."

She had half expected Ginny to follow her, it wouldn't have been the first time that her brilliant plan had been foiled. However Harry and Christopher were talking about Quidditch which actually held some interest for Ginny, so Hermione was on her own.

The cloak room was currently unmanned, the clerk was likely on a break since everyone was now checked in and mingling. No one was expected to leave the building until after dinner now.

"Took you long enough," Draco muttered as she came in. He grabbed her arm and pulled her close to him.

"Well it's not like you ever give me much notice with these things," She wrapped her arms around behind his neck.

"You never really require much notice with these things."

When they kissed, the fire that they had always found before was still raging violently.

Draco's hands roamed up and down her back, over fabric and bare flesh, exciting them both. He wanted to just pull the dress clean off her but he waited and would continue to wait until they were both stirred beyond any reasonable consciousness.

"What's with the robes?" Hermione breathed as Draco's lips left hers and made their way down to her throat.

"Mother made me."

"Let's leave your mother out of this," Hermione shoved him back and looked him up and down, "Lose them."

Draco gave her the sexy half smile that she liked so much before he pulled the robes over his head.

She ignored his rather modest cotton briefs and reached for him again, wanting her hand on him without all the pesky clothing in the way.

It was only seconds before he had the straps off her shoulders and her dress slithered to the floor where it was abandoned next to Draco's robes.

He had both hands on her bare breasts, kneading them and flicking his thumbs gently over her nipple making her purr in response.

"Did I tell you how amazing you look tonight?" Draco whispered, trailing his tongue down her neck once again.

"You failed to mention it when I was actually wearing my dress."

He chuckled and took one breast in his mouth. She dug her finger nails into his back sending him off on a frenzy which included picking her up and slamming her back against a wall.

Their mouths were once again connected, teasing and devouring, gentle nips and not so gentle pressure.

When Draco slide his hand down the length of her torso she shivered again, when he bought his hand up between her legs and stroked her through her lacy panties, she shuddered and made sure she had a good grip on him as she was now feeling unstable on her feet.

She breathed his name over and over as his fingers teased her past the edge.

It looked like Draco might open his mouth to say something so Hermione crushed her lips on his again, plunging her tongue into his mouth. If he was shocked at the movement, he didn't show it because he was answered her desperation with his own.

She pushed his briefs off his hips and wrapped her hand around him, applying the right amount of pressure to make him squirm with need.

With all judgement clouded, he ripped her underwear off her and dragged her to the floor and without a second thought to the impending carpet burn, plunged deep inside of her.

If it hadn't been for the ballroom full of their friends, family, clients and business partners just a wall away, Hermione would have called out. Instead she just bit into Draco's shoulder as he rose over her.

The pain only fuelled him as he quickened the pace. Hermione could honestly feel her eyes rolling into the back of her head as she once again rode to her peak.

"Come now," He panted, once again stepping up the pace.

She did as she was told, her whole body convulsing wildly as he followed close behind her.

They lay there for a few minutes, both breathing heavily and covered in a fine film of sweat.

"I think I destroyed your underwear," He murmured.

"I think I have carpet burn on my arse," She replied and they both burst out laughing.

"Do you think they would notice if I just lay here for the rest of the evening? I don't think that my legs are working right now."

"They might not, but you are completely naked, so you might end up drawing a crowd."

Draco lifted his head slightly to look down at his body, "You're right, clothes are needed." He put his head down again, "Maybe later."

She laughed and rolled over to find her stray items. He was right, the panties were goners. She didn't have her wand on her to do some patch up work so she would have to dump them.

"You can delight yourself in knowing that I will be wearing absolutely nothing under this dress," She told him as she slid it up her body and put her arms through the straps.

"And that memory is going to stay with me for the rest of my life."

"Here," She threw the ruined fabric on him as she headed for the door, "A souvenir."

Something else to keep with him, he thought, or at least until he got bored with their little rendezvous right under the noses of everyone who knew them.

He pulled his own clothing back on and checked his reflection quickly in the tiny mirror. After a quick smoothing down of his hair he decided that it was time to rejoin the party.

He opened the door to the cloak room just as Hermione walked out of the ladies restrooms, "Well, fancy seeing you here."

"You go first," She said backing into the bathroom, "I'll wait a minute or too."

"As you wish," He nodded.

Moving away from the hallway entrance had its drawbacks. Half way across the room he was cornered by his father who didn't exactly look pleased.

"Where on Earth have you been?"

"I was mingling."

"Well I haven't seen you at all for the last twenty minutes," Lucius spat but he looked over Draco's shoulder and saw Hermione stepping out of the hall and looking for her friends.

"What do you want from me?"

"I want you to stop acting like a spoiled child and grow up. You have a purpose here, and it doesn't have its legs spread in a cloak room for you. Merlin forbid that you might actually have to work for something." And with that, he turned on his heal and walked off.

Draco just sighed, plastered a smile on his face and followed.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Merry Christmas everyone. Hope you have a wonderful and peaceful day. Thank you again to my wonderful reviewers. I'm glad that you are enjoying this story. I will do my best to have an update for you before we say goodbye to 2009. I can't say that I'll be sorry to see the back of what has been a fairly awful year. Hope you enjoy this chapter. Take care this holiday season.

~JL

* * *

Hermione was awake, she was just pretending to not be. She knew that Christopher was awake too because his breathing was no longer heavy or even and he was shuffling in an attempt to get her to wake up and acknowledge his presence.

She refused. How was it that she could have amazing sex one minute and terrible sex the next? Christopher was good at most aspects of life. He could convince a jury that someone was guilty, he was refined, polite and could dance but in the bedroom, he left Hermione feeling disappointed.

Briefly she considered that it was her high expectations and not his inability to please a woman. After months of sneaking around with Draco, an orgasm was something that was reserved for an office or a cloak room, or even an expensive Parisian hotel room.

Finally he gave up and rolled towards her, touching her shoulder and whispering her name, "Are you awake?"

She sighed internally before turning towards him, "Morning."

His dark hair was ruffled slightly but he looked wide awake. He leaned in and kissed her on the lips, an act that she hated. "I'm sorry, but I have to go."

"Oh," Hermione tried desperately to look disappointed but doubted that she was convincing anyone, "That's okay."

"How about we do lunch later in the week?"

"Sure," She nodded, "Just call me at the office. I have to go to Paris on Wednesday and will also be away on Thursday but free the rest of the time."

"Excellent," He kissed her again before he climbed out of the bed and went in search of his clothing.

She got up, pulled on a robe and walked him to the door. Once in the hallway, he Disapparated and she went back inside to take a shower and wash the memories off her.

~*

"This would look great in your apartment," Benita screeched in her painfully high pitched voice while snatching up a statue of a trio of singing frogs.

"I'm not shopping for my apartment," Draco gritted his teeth. He was wrong to think that if he got drunk enough that Benita would get more interesting and be worth taking home.

Apparently the aftershocks were not worth a night of sex that one cannot remember.

"Why are we here then?"

"Breakfast."

"We could have had breakfast in your apartment," She said still eyeing the statue, "Won't you at least consider this?"

"Not a chance," He kept walking, ignoring the spruiking from the random market holders who had set up tables outside Diagon Alley's main stores. His favourite restaurant was bustling with people. There even appeared to be a line gathering out the front. He sighed and pouted.

"What about the Leaky Cauldron?" Benita suggested following his line of sight to the packed restaurant.

"I do not want to eat at a bar," He said firmly trying so hard not to lose his patience and have a screaming match with his prolonged date in public, "Bars are for drinking in and falling down in, not for meals and definitely not for breakfast."

"Well," She crossed her arms, "How about you go over there and do some name dropping."

"Good idea," He started forward but felt his stomach revolt when he felt her slip her hand in his. Life wasn't fair.

"Oh isn't that your partner?"

Draco looked at where Benita was pointing and grinned. Sure enough there was Hermione, trying to push between Sunday shoppers and busy market stalls.

"Granger," He called out.

She heard him, saw him and then saw his bint and almost made a run for it, instead she sucked in a deep breath and went over to talk to them.

"Did you enjoy the party last night Benita?"

"It was fun," She said trying to get closer to Draco, Hermione thought that if she got much closer they would be wearing the same skin.

"Did you talk to Weasley, Weasley and Potter Corp.?" Draco asked ignoring the pleasantries.

"They're just going by Weasley's Wizard Wheezers these days."

"Whatever," He studied his nails as if he were bored, "I was really hoping to get them in for an interview this week."

"I haven't had the chance to talk to them yet."

"I asked you to do it days ago."

"Well, I have been busy."

"That's just not good enough."

Hermione looked at Benita who didn't seem at all phased by the professional disagreement taking part in front of her, she just looked around and ignored them.

"I really don't think that this is the best time to discuss this," Hermione replied, "I will talk to them today and do my best to set your meeting up."

"Fine," Draco looked her up and down, "Where's what's-his-name lawyer hero?"

"He had to go early this morning, he has a standing breakfast with his mother on Sundays. Also he knows when he's pushing boundaries and when to clear out."

This time both Hermione and Draco looked at Benita who was still playing clueless, no doubt looking for more ugly statues to dress his apartment with.

"It was nice to be berated by you," Hermione smiled sarcastically at Draco, "Now if you don't mind, I have things that I need to do. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Bye Hermione," Benita said as she walked off.

Draco grinned, untangled his hand and went after her. He caught her just as she was passing a small side street and dragged her into it.

"What the hell..." She began but was cut off when his lips crushed on hers. She returned the kiss briefly before shoving at him and turning her head away. "Someone will see."

"Good point," He muttered but started nibbling on her neck anyway, "Come back to my apartment."

"No, I have things to do."

"Cancel," he said moving his so smoothly that they felt like they were everywhere at once. He smiled wickedly as her body reacted to him.

She pushed at him again but with less force this time. It would just be too easy to go with him. To let his smart hands to insane things to her body again and again until she couldn't bare it any longer but it was poor timing. She had agreed to have lunch at the Burrow and that's what she was going to do. "Stop Draco."

Surprisingly he did but it was obviously a difficult thing for him to do and he rested his head against hers for a minute. "Please," He tried again looking in her eyes, "I know you want to."

"I do. I was never pretending that I didn't, but I really have to go. The Weasley's have invited me out to their house for lunch and I said that I would do it, so I really need to go. I'm sorry."

Draco nodded once and stepped back putting his hands in his pockets. He looked disappointed and Hermione felt a little bad for letting him get himself worked up. Though on the other hand, he was a big boy and one day would have to get used to not getting exactly what he wanted.

"What about Bunny?"

"Who?"

"The girl," She gestured off in the direction where Benita was no doubt waiting impatiently for him to return.

"Oh, Benita," He rolled his eyes, "She is beyond annoying. I just wish that she would go away but no, there she is all the time. I was sort of hoping that when I woke up this morning that she had just let herself out, but no, she was helping herself to my fire place cancelling plans to meet her friends for lunch so that she could spend the day with me. And now here we are, I'm majorly irritated while she tries to redecorate my apartment with ugly frog things."

Hermione blinked at him a few times before laughing, "You really shouldn't let your mother set you up on blind dates anymore."

"Are you absolutely positive that you won't come home with and make me forget everything that happened last night."

"Nope," Hermione patted his cheek, "I have to go to the bakery and get a cake that I'm going to pretend that I baked myself and then I am off to the Weasley's and before you say anything, yes I will talk to them about coming in for a meeting this week."

"Come over after."

"No."

He sighed heavily and paced around in circles, "How do I get rid of her then?"

"Tell her that you're not feeling well and that you need to go home and get some rest. Then tell her that you will call her later in the week to arrange a lunch date and then conveniently forget."

"You've done this before."

"I do this every time I go out with Christopher," She said matter-of-factly, "We both know the song and dance. We go to some event, have a lovely time, dance, kiss, have sex, the next morning he gets up and leaves, we promise to get together for lunch but never do. It's become a bit of a ritual for us."

"Glad that you have that all sorted," His voice reeked with sarcasm and bitterness.

"I have a lot of rituals sorted out," She said looking him up and down and raising her eyebrows.

Never slow, Draco grabbed her again, "We should explore this further, in the comfort of my bed."

Hermione threw her head back and laughed, it was nice to just laugh sometimes, especially when a lot of the time she was stressed out of her brain.

While she was in no way at all willing to go home with him, she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him deeply, "I'll see you at the office tomorrow."

He watched as she stepped back into the crowds, gave him a bit of a wink and disappeared. He sighed again, nothing was fair and he wasn't exactly used to her telling him no, she always seemed like she was up for anything even if it was just a quick tryst in the back streets.

Just as his blood was heating up thinking about Hermione's legs wrapped around him in the small street, Benita arrived and looked at him strangely.

"I'm not feeling well," He muttered, "I better go home."

~*

Everyone was already present when Hermione arrived at the Burrow. There was the bustle of little kiddie feet as Bill's son ran past at full tilt followed closely by Arthur then Bill. Fleur yelled something in French out the kitchen window and Molly warned Arthur about being too old for games like that.

Something exploded in the lounge room followed by one girly shriek and several very manly laughs. Another warning was issued from Molly about destroying the house.

Ginny saw Hermione step in the door and silently thanked the heavens, "Glad you're here, the whole place has gone mad."

"What was that noise?"

"George," Ginny waved a hand as if that explained everything, "Do you want me to take that?"

Hermione handed over the cake and watched as Ginny set it on top of the refrigerator where little fingers couldn't reach. She moved deeper into the kitchen so she could give Mrs. Weasley a kiss on the cheek.

"How are you dear?" The woman asked, she was much thinner than she used to be and wore the death of her son around her eyes but she seemed to warm a bit with the house full of her family.

"I'm well thank you, can I help at all?"

"'Ere," Fleur said, "You can butter ze rolls."

Taking up station at the counter, Hermione fell into another ritual, helping to make a large family meal with the people closest to her.

Eventually the boys were sent to set up the outdoor tables while Angelina grabbed enough cutlery for everyone. Ginny started to walk large bowls of food out to the table and Fleur abandoned them to wrestle her son into a high chair.

It was such a family affair and even though she didn't end up marrying Ron the way everyone expected, she still felt like she was part of it.

The conversation was localised to small cliques during the meal, Hermione ensured that she sat next to George so that she would be able to talk to him without Ron hearing. He was at the other end of the table between Harry and Percy trying not to be bored to death with Ministry talk.

"George," Hermione began, switching from family mode to business mode, "I was wondering if you were still looking at finding investors to expand the store?"

He raised his eye brows at her, "What are you really saying?"

"I'm saying that Malfoy Industries is interested in investing in Weasley's Wizard Wheezers."

"Malfoy or you?"

"Well I am interested but it was not my idea. Malfoy would really like it if you would come in and meet with him. He thinks that your business is progressive and is sure that you're making decent enough returns to warrant him throwing some Galleons your way."

"I am still looking for investors. Right now the mail order service is just not making enough profits to keep it going. The cost of owls is just ridiculous these days and people are holding up on purchasing by mail order because of it. Ultimately I would like to expand into other parts of Europe, then the U.S and maybe through various parts of Asia."

Hermione nodded, an expansion would definitely help to increase profits. "You've been doing a lot of thinking about this haven't you?"

"An insane amount of thinking," He confirmed, "I think that we've settled into a nice rhythm with the store and the business, it's time to shake things up a bit. Maybe open another shop in Ireland and see how we go and I would love to go back to inventing things. I feel like I need more hours in the day."

"Believe me, I know what you mean."

George smiled at her, "Do you really think that Malfoy will take us on? The business is a lot smaller than they're used to."

"Draco seems to think that it's worth it, just meet with him and see what he has to say. He might be a spoiled, pretentious prat but he knows good business and he wouldn't do anything to put yours in jeopardy."

"You know that Ron is never going to go for this."

"Don't worry about Ron," Hermione said leaning closer to make sure that none of the others could hear her, "Get Harry on board first. He hates Malfoy too but he has a slightly more open mind and if you convince him that it would be good for business and that it's what you want to do, then Harry will support you and it will be much easier to get Ron to agree to it."

"You're an evil mastermind."

Hermione forked up some potato salad and grinned, "I know."

"Excuse me everyone," Harry stood up, "I would just like to say thank you to Molly for preparing this wonderful meal."

Everyone raised their glasses and muttered a chorus of 'Here, here' before drinking.

"Also," Harry continued, "I have a few announcements to make."

"He's not," Hermione whispered wondering what happened to waiting.

"Not what?" George asked.

"First of all, Ron and I have been cleared from our injury leave and will be starting back at work again from tomorrow," He waited while everyone clapped like seals, "Secondly, I have asked Ginny to marry me and she has said yes."

Hermione watched as one by one jaws dropped. Molly got slowly to her feet, tears of pure joy in her eyes as she dashed around the table and enveloped Harry in a bear hug. There were shouts of congratulations as everyone got up to hug the couple and shake Harry's hand in a warm 'welcome to the family' way.

"Thank you everyone," Harry said, "We have one more piece of news. We're expecting a baby."

Molly cried and wrapped her arms around her daughter, Arthur looked a little upset that things were not proceeding in the proper manner, everyone else began the hugging and hand shaking again while Ron climbed to his feet and stormed inside the house.

"Did you know about this?" George whispered in Hermione's ear.

"Of course I did."

"Did Ron?"

"Yes."

"Well something tells me that it's going to be even harder to convince him to agree to the investment now."

"Well, Harry always did have a fantastic sense of timing."

"Oh well," George picked up his wine glass, "I'll worry about it later, let's celebrate."

Hermione grabbed her glass too and went to mill around the happy couple.


	6. Chapter 6

"Coffee," Hermione mumbled when she finally arrive at work. She dropped her bag on Delia's desk, on top of her opened mail and sighed, "I feel like it was last Monday ten minutes ago."

"I know how you feel," Delia nodded, "Steven called this morning. He had to go to the factory again yesterday; apparently there was a break in."

"What?"

"All he said was that there was a break in, the local authorities are investigating and that the original sabotage is looking deliberate. He also said that he will call you when he has more information."

"If this day looks like it's getting any worse," Hermione warned, "Don't tell me."

"Sure thing."

"Can you dump my stuff on my desk; I need to fill Mr. Malfoy in on this wonderful new development."

Delia nodded and Hermione left her to it, she entered Draco's office without bothering to knock.

"You owe me," Draco said when he saw her, "Thanks for the brilliant advice for getting rid of dates who over stay their welcome."

"You seem sarcastic today," Hermione walked around his desk and sat on it, "What happened?"

"She insisted on coming home with me to, and I quote, 'take care of sicky-wicky Draky.'"

Hermione couldn't help herself, she laughed. She didn't think it would be at all possible with the factory hiccup looming over her head, but it was too good an opportunity to pass up. She messed his hair and adopted the same baby voice he had used, "Oh poor Draky, did the nasty bint force feed you chicken soup and make you lay around in bed all day?"

"More or less," He grinned wickedly, "She did put that pert little body of hers to good use while she was at making me lay around in bed all day though."

"You have very little shame and almost no pride."

"Who needs pride?" He shrugged and reached for her, pulling her arm until her face was close to his.

Rather than bother pretending that she wasn't interested in playing their little games, Hermione just hiked her pencil skirt up and climbed onto the chair with Draco, straddling him. The sexy lacy underwear that she was so fond of was clearly visible and made Draco's mouth water.

"Are you feeling alright Granger," He whispered, running his hands over her frame, pinching and teasing her in the places he had learned that she liked.

"I'm feeling just fine."

He watched as she undid the top button on her blouse and leaned back so that he could take in her whole body in one go. It was enough to have him hard and speechless. The first wasn't difficult; his body was more or less trained to react when he saw her where as the second was something he was unaccustomed to, generally he always had something to say.

"Are you feeling alright Draky?"

Swallowing hard, he just nodded and focused on getting the rest of her blouse undone so that he could get his wordless tongue on those perfect breasts.

There was a soft knock on the door, they both ignored it. The next knock was louder and the one after it louder again until Delia called out, "Miss Granger?"

"Go away," Draco yelled pulling the cup of Hermione's bra down and biting down on her nipple just hard enough to make her whole body quiver.

"I'm sorry to interrupt..."

"Not yet but you will be," Draco muttered earning a mischievous smile from Hermione.

"Miss Granger, Steve is in the fire for you."

"Oh right," Hermione drew her blouse together and slid off Draco's lap, "I'll be right there."

"Who is Steve?"

"He's my other lover," She teased, "I keep them everywhere just in case I get an itch that you can't scratch, though this morning looked really promising."

"You're cruel."

"You've never complained," She marched out of the room on what Draco assumed we're very expensive shoes.

He tried his best to focus but he was in a painfully uncomfortable state. It was so like her to get him worked up to the point of no control and then just walk out and leave him. He considered getting himself off, but thought better of it, if she came back, he would be very disappointed that he didn't wait.

As it happened, she did come back but it was clear by the speed that she wouldn't be helping Draco out any time soon.

"I have to go to Scotland," She announced, "That factory thing from last week, apparently they arrested the stores supervisor for breaking and entering and they also think that he's the one who tampered the potion."

"You're kidding right?"

"Not at all," Hermione said, "Delia is ordering me a Portkey as we speak, I have to go."

"Did you call my father?"

"I was hoping to handle this without including him."

"He's not going to be happy; you should call him before you go."

"Miss Granger," Delia stuck her head in the open door, "The transport office said they can get you a Portkey in fifteen minutes if you hurry."

"Tell them I'll take it," Hermione said and turned back to Draco, "Can you call your dad for me; I really don't have the time."

Draco sighed, "Fine."

"Thanks," She practically ran out of the room.

~*

Lucius Malfoy was in a tear, not only was he in the middle of a share holders meeting, but he had also been interrupted three times by his assistant. He hated the woman but Narcissa had hired her after the war so he felt compelled to keep her.

By the time Draco called, he was ready to do some damage, "This better be exceptionally good Draco, or I swear I will hurt you."

"Calm down Father," Draco spat as if it were more of an inconvenience to make the call than it was for his father to receive it, "I just called to inform you that the potions factory was broken into over the weekend and the Stores Supervisor was the culprit, Hermione has left for Scotland to sort it all out."

"And why exactly didn't Hermione call to inform me of this little development?" Lucius asked making sure he said Hermione's name pointedly enough to make Draco realise that he had used her first name.

If Draco had noticed, he ignored it and continued, "She said there wasn't time and asked me to do it. So this is me calling you to tell you there's a problem. Now I have my own work to do, so if you don't mind?"

When Draco was gone, Lucius had his assistant book a Portkey to Scotland and cancelled his meeting, he was glad that he didn't have to sit the rest of the day in a board room with a bunch of formal robes talking stock, but at the same time was greatly irritated by the fact that he would have to reschedule and spend even more time with some of the dullest men in the Wizarding world.

He made a quick call to Narcissa letting her know that he was leaving the country and that he would keep her posted then went straight to the department of transport to wait for his Portkey.

By the time Lucius walked into the factory, Hermione had finished talking to the local police and was about to tackle the disgruntled employee.

"Granger," He called out when he saw her being lead by the Factory manager.

"Mr. Malfoy," She stopped and shook his hand, "What are you doing here?"

"Draco called and said that we were having a few problems. I thought it was best that I see to it myself. When the police are called to one of my businesses, I generally like to be involved."

"Absolutely," Hermione smiled at him hoping that she had covered up her irritation at him being there, "This is Mr. Garrard; he runs our fine factory here."

"Such an honour to finally meet you," Garrard shook Lucius's hand a little too vigorously when it was offered; "I really love working here."

"Fascinating," He decide to ignore the overly chipper employee and focused his wrath on Hermione, "Would you care to explain to me what in the name of Merlin is going on here?"

"Well," Hermione began walking, leaving Lucius and Garrard to fall in step with her, "As you are aware, we had a small problem with the potion that went on the market a couple of weeks ago. The patrons were turning purple, as more reports came in; we also learned that some experienced hair loss and chills. There were many admissions to St. Mungo's."

"Yes, yes I'm aware of all that."

"We thought that it was an inside job," Garrard offered but neither Lucius nor Hermione bothered to notice he was even there.

"I had Steven investigate everything that went wrong but on the surface everything seemed perfectly in order, I even went over the files he returned with and on paper everything went fine, then Steven got a call from Garrard here saying that the cops arrested someone breaking in, and here we are."

"Where is he?"

"I told Scotland Yard that we weren't pressing charges, and they brought him in and I've turned him over to the Auroras. They're with him now and I'm about to question him."

"Well I would like to sit in on that."

"Naturally," Hermione smiled, "Garrard would you arrange for Mr. Malfoy and myself to have coffee please?"

"Sure," he nodded, "How do you take it?"

"Black, no sugar," Lucius said.

"Same," Hermione added and when Garrard walked off, she opened the little office door and let Lucius go in first.

There were two Auroras in the room, one of them just happened to be Harry Potter. Lucius paled and his guard went straight up. Hermione got a small tingling sensation watching the senior Malfoy lose it slightly.

"Mr. Potter," He nodded curtly.

"Mr. Malfoy," Harry responded, "Hermione."

"How are you Harry?"

"Just fine thank you."

"Can we get on with it?" Mr. Trent Wilde snapped from his seat between the two watchful Auroras.

"Of course Mr. Wilde," Hermione dropped the report the police gave her on the table, "Would you like to tell us why you were breaking into your place of employment on Saturday night?"

"I didn't."

"Perhaps then, you could tell me why you were arrested by the local police while you were breaking into your place of employment on Saturday night?"

"Mistaken identity."

"Nice try," Hermione sat back trying to look intimidating when Garrard came in and put two cups of coffee on the table. "I'm not really interested in whether or not it was you; the evidence has already told me what to think. What I want to know, and I'm sure that Mr. Malfoy would agree is why you were breaking in."

"Well first I would have to have done it."

"Okay then," Hermione decided to change tactics, "Why then did you switch the labels on the ingredients bottles so that ills bane was added to the potion?"

"I didn't," He said very clearly as if his tone alone could clear him of all charges.

"You see, I would take your word for it except that you're the only person in stores, you check everything in and out. It goes from your hand to the cauldron."

"There are delivery boys and the losers who drop everything in the cauldron, I'm not the only person who had the opportunity."

"Just tell me why the hell you did it?" Lucius snapped making everyone tense a little.

Trent sat forward so that he was leaning most of the way across the table, "I didn't do it."

"We will be pressing charges," Hermione said to Harry, "I would like him tried in London as that is where our head office is."

"I will have to file a request," Harry said, begging quietly with his eyes to not put him through the painful request process and then the matter of prisoner transportation.

Hermione completely ignored his silent begging and considered calling Christopher up for that lunch date after all, if anyone could throw the somewhat inconclusive evidence at a judge and make it stick, he could.

"Thanks, Harry," She stood up, "Mr. Malfoy?"

Lucius climbed to his feet, and resisted the urge to pull out his wand and hex the little shit into next summer. He knew that Harry and the other Aurora would have him in a cell quicker than a killing curse that hits its mark dead on.

"Where are we going?" Lucius asked when they were out in the hallway.

"I had Steven pull all the potion techs off their work to go through stores. I am going to see if they've found anything."

"You really are more efficient than I give you credit for."

"I know," Hermione said, "But I forgive you."

The ingredient stores were a mess. The shelves were all labelled clearly but they were empty. People milled around passing jars of with different bits and pieces in them to each other. They all had lab coats and protective goggles on. The first wave of people checked the jars for curses, the second lot sorted the jar by sight to see if what was in them looked dangerous or not. They then went either into a secure room where the contents were tested to see if they matched the label or to a general table where they were checked for the same thing.

"How far have they got?" Lucius asked studying his staff.

"Steven," Hermione called out and the tall man hurried to her side.

"Hey," He said staring at Lucius in utter disbelief.

"We would like to know how things are going."

"Ah, of course," Steven forced himself to break eye contact with the rather intimidating man, "This process is taking up a lot of time, but we're about half way. So far we've found several jars that have been mislabelled and a jar of stock that isn't meant to be here at all."

Lucius groaned, he had a public relations nightmare on his hands. He made a mental note to sit down with the media department first thing the next day and get a statement out to the public. Merlin forbid that they stop buying his product.

"Okay Steven," Hermione pat his shoulder, "Try and see if you can speed this process up a little. You will need to hire a new stores manager while you're here and I want all resumes to cross my desk before any interviews are arranged. Also I want this process repeated quarterly to ensure that nothing is going wrong. Yearly stock take is clearly not enough."

"I'll make the arrangements."

When Steven was gone, Lucius turned to Hermione, "How much money was lost on this little adventure?"

"Enough," She said.

"Give it to me in Galleons."

"Several million."

Lucius groaned again.

"It will be okay," She assured him, "The problem has been dealt with now, stock checked, production will begin again the second this process is completed and the potion should be back on shelves by the end of next month."

"I'm going to wring that guy out in court."

"We still don't know what he wanted," She reminded him, "I'm going to increase security on the facility and have it swept for curses twice a day."

"How on Earth did I manage to get you to work for me?"

"You asked nicely, and offered me a deal I couldn't refuse."

~*

It had been a full day and was past dinner time before Lucius and Hermione made their way back to the department of transport to catch a Portkey home.

"These new international travel regulations are ludicrous." Lucius complained.

"Yet necessary," Hermione replied, "It makes it harder for those who are still on the run to get around, and slightly easier to catch them."

"I guess you have a point."

They sat in silence for a while. People bustled around them getting home or heading home, they all looked tired from their big days, ready to curl up with their families or a good book.

"Where do you see yourself in five years Granger?"

She thought for a minute, it was hardly a question that she had been ready for but she felt that she should answer it none-the-less. "I would really like to continue working for Malfoy Industries, either in this position or somewhere higher up in the company."

"Do you think that my son will keep you employed after he takes reign of the company?"

"Yes."

"You seem so sure."

"I am sure."

Lucius studied her closely. She had so much determination and came highly recommended by not only all of her university professors, but also most of the staff at Hogwarts. She was smart, intelligent and knew how to get things done exactly the way she wanted them to be done. He realised that he probably over-reacted by running off to Scotland to check on her.

"Draco is a rather stupid young man, he doesn't always make decisions that are in his best interest. If he feels threatened by you which I am sure that he does, he will fire you the first chance he gets. I would honestly be surprised if he even tries out my office chair before he relieves you."

"I think that sometimes you neglect to give Draco the credit he deserves. He's not as stupid as you think he is and he certainly works a lot harder than you think he does."

"I've no doubt that he works hard," Lucius smiled, "because he knows that I don't have to leave the business to him. The law stipulates that I must retire, not that I must hand my business to my heir."

"So you're manipulating him into working by threatening to take his inheritance away?"

Lucius nodded.

"How did you make him care?"

"I told him that I'd leave it to you."

Hermione chewed her lip, she knew that Lucius would leave the entire business to the Weasley's before he put it in the hands of a Muggle born but she wasn't sure how she felt about being used to force Draco into wanting something that he never seemed to care that much about.

"Don't look at me like that, we have a contract."

"I am aware of that," Hermione snapped, "But that has nothing to do with this. You shouldn't be rubbing me in his face."

The witch behind the counter called their names.

"Why not, he seems content to rub you in his own face?" Lucius climbed to his feet and headed to the Portkey leaving Hermione to follow in shock.

* * *

A/N: What did everyone do for New Years? I spent the whole night playing Guitar Hero with close friends of mine and I don't think I could have had more fun doing anything else. Hope that you all have had a wonderful start to 2010 and that you have a prosperous year, oh and I also hope that you enjoyed this chapter. Thank you to those who reviewed the previous chapter. I put a lot of Lucius in this one for those of you who are fans. I promise to have more Draco in the next one though.

Regards,

JL


	7. Chapter 7

Draco was rather surprised to find himself in his office with a reporter for Witch Weekly. She was young, eager and clearly used to getting what she wanted; Draco was willing to become her personal slave if only for her well looked after form.

"So you want to do an article about me?" He shook his head again as if he had heard the whole thing wrong.

"Yes," Julia Wentworth nodded, "I want to call it 'A Week in the Life of Draco Malfoy'. Basically I will shadow you, see your movements and introduce my readers to the real you, the one that they don't get to see when they're out and about on their shopping trips."

"Well see that would all be fine," Draco began, sitting at his desk so the reporter wouldn't write him as some kind of hyperactive nut job, "Except that I have a lot of business dealings that you won't be able to put into print and I have a partner that I work with a lot and I highly doubt that she will be interested in being involved in this. Plus my life really isn't that interesting, I spend most of my day at this desk, reading, making notes and so on."

"Why don't you tell me what the rest of your week is looking like?"

"Ah, well, I have a team brief this afternoon, then tomorrow I am off to France and will be staying overnight and Friday will be all about sorting out reports on the meetings that I'm going to France for."

Julia scribbled something in her note book, "How about your weekends?"

"I will probably catch up with some old friends on Friday night and then Saturday will no doubt be filled with some charity function or something. This is a full time job, weekends are rarely free of some sort of activity."

"I really think that we're onto something here."

"Well I have no problem with you doing the article," Draco sat back feeling rather smug, "You of course cannot be present at any meetings, but you can feel free to get the details for whatever is on Saturday night and I will ensure that you're name is on the list."

Julia very much liked the look of Draco, he was handsome and powerful and she knew that he could have any girl he wanted, and most likely did. Her editor had practically drooled when she pitched the idea so she knew that she was onto a winner, it might even make the cover. And she was willing to go to bed for that one.

"Perhaps," She began taking the end of her quill and tracing it over her neck and down her sharp V cut suit, "I could attend this function as your date, assuming that you haven't already made plans."

"N-no plans to speak of," Draco stuttered watching the quill as it made its way over chest.

There was a knock at the door and Draco wondered why he had such rotten luck in this damn office.

Hermione stuck her head in the door, "I have news."

"I'll let you get back to work then," Julia tucked her notebook and quill into her bag and stood, "Perhaps we can meet for lunch?"

"Of course," Draco nodded, "Meet me at the Leaky Cauldron at 12:30 and we can have lunch."

"Great," She walked with purpose knowing that Draco was looking at her arse. She smiled at Hermione as she walked through the door, "See ya."

Hermione shook her head as she closed the door, "I can't work out if she wants to screw you for business or pleasure."

"Oh Merlin let it be pleasure," Draco sighed, "So what's the news that's worth interrupting my very, very important meeting for?"

"That was not an important meeting, Malfoy. That was her using her assets to get exactly what she wanted from you."

"She has very nice assets, did you not see them?"

"She's not my type," Hermione shrugged before walking around his desk and sitting on it the way she always did, "I got you the meeting you wanted with Weasley's."

"You did?" Draco sat up straight now, "When are they coming in?"

"Well first, they won't take a meeting in the building, George insists on meeting in a restaurant."

Draco nodded slowly but didn't object.

"Second, they will only deal with you if I'm present," When he didn't object to that she decided to spring the time on him, "Because Harry and Ron have other jobs, they want to meet for dinner on Friday evening."

"What?"

"You said to get the meeting, I got the meeting."

"Friday evening is my night to drink as much as possible to forget the week before it starts all over again."

"Well you can drink at dinner," Hermione said, "And it's not going to be all evening, just a couple of hours for them to pitch, you to voice your concerns, me to mediate when you all start calling each other names and then you can go to a bar and kill some brain cells."

"Fine, Friday evening it is."

"Fantastic," She stood up straight and looked down at him, "Watch out for the reporter."

"Jealous?" He grinned slightly.

"No, but just try to remember that they will sell more magazines if they make you look bad than they will by making you look good. Think about it."

Draco didn't need to think about it, he knew what he was doing and he had convinced himself that Hermione's warning was nothing but her extreme jealously before she had even left the room. He would meet with Julia and nothing would go wrong, she would get her article and he would get a good roll and that was all there was to it.

~*

Draco had never had the need for a cigarette before in his life, but suddenly felt the need to take up the filthy habit just to deal with the intensity that was Julia Wentworth in the sack.

The desire to attain exactly what she wanted extended outside the professional arena and she wasn't afraid to get violent if the need called for it.

There were thick purple bruises surfacing on Draco's neck and he was sure that he would need medical attention for his back but the orgasm was so intense that he was sure it was worth the chiropractic nightmare.

"That was a really good lunch," Julia said, rolling over and running her fingers over his chest, "I wouldn't mind seconds."

He could only groan and she laughed.

"Perhaps another time, you look a little used there."

He groaned again.

"So, what time do you leave for France tomorrow?"

"Six."

"In the morning?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Well," Draco rolled off the bed and tried not to give her the impression that he was trying to get away, "We are staying overnight and we will have luggage. We leave early so that we can drop our stuff off, go over our notes, get dressed and go to the meeting rather than try to be in a hurry."

"Surely that was Granger's idea."

"No actually that one comes from my father and his years of doing business. He probably would have gone the night before though, just to be sure."

"So why aren't you going tonight?"

"Trying not to give off the illusion that we spend an excessive amount of money."

"Fair enough," Julia climbed out of the bed too and began to dress, "So overnight in France with your partner, bet the two of you have some fun with that."

"What are you talking about?"

"I've heard some rumours," Julian said.

"Of course you've heard rumours. We work together and we travel a lot, but that doesn't mean that we are sliding all over each other when we're away."

"I was hoping that I would have something juicy to put into my article."

"I just gave you something juicy to put in your article," He said pulling his shirt on and doing the buttons up.

"Yes," she agreed, "But I'm out to tell your story not my own."

"Well, this was part of my day," He shrugged jamming his feet in his shoes and heading for the door, "You should get my schedule off Samson and I will give you an interview next Monday. That should be enough right?"

"Sure thing," Julia nodded, "See you when you get back then."

"Yeah," Draco closed the door and hurried back to his office. He should have waited until after the article to jump her bones, now he would have to be nice to her until after it went to press or things could turn very ugly.

He thought about Hermione briefly, how was it that she knew so much about people's motives? It almost wasn't fair.

Nevertheless, he wasn't going to admit that perhaps she was right, not even to himself. Instead he locked himself in his office and went over the written proposal for the following day.

~*

Hogwarts head boy, Mitchell Brandon, lead Hermione to Professor McGonagall's office. He looked at her in a rather sceptical manner, "Are you here for the History of Magic position?"

"Professor Binns retired?"

"Yes, he said that it was time to step down.'

"Wow, I never thought that I would see the day."

"I guess that means you're not here for the job then."

"No, I have a job."

"Shame," He shook his head, "You would have been perfect."

"Why do you say that?"

"You're smart, fought in the war and are extremely easy on the eyes."

Unsure whether to feel weirded out or flattered, Hermione just settled on relieved that they had finally arrived at the stone gargoyle and she was on her way up the rotating steps before he could comment on her appearance further.

"Thank you so much for coming," the Head Mistress said when she answered the door, "I'm sorry that I'm not more organised or I could have met you in Hogsmede."

"That's quite alright," Hermione slipped her cloak off and hung it on the rack by the door, "Have you gone over the proposal further?"

"I have written several over the last week and I think that I have finally managed to make it sound decent." She picked up a roll of parchment from her desk and handed it to Hermione.

She unrolled it and read it through straight away, "This is looking really good," she nodded. "I will have to arrange for a time to meet with Lucius and Narcissa but I can imagine that they would jump at the chance to do this."

"Well it was your idea."

"For the purpose of this presentation, it's going to be all your idea. I'll try to meet with Lucius in a social capacity to run it by him in a casual setting. If he seems interested, then I'll bring you in and we can go over the finer details."

Professor McGonagall looked beyond relieved, "So I can tell my fellow school heads that we will get our competitions?"

"I would tell them that you have contacted us and that there is a great chance that they will be all set up for next season."

"Excellent," She took the lid of a bowl of raspberry sweets and offered Hermione one that she gratefully accepted. "Did you talk to Draco about this?"

"I did yes, he seems just as excited as I am."

"Well in that case, I was planning on hosting a dinner here next week with the heads of Beaubaxtons and Durmstrang along with the Headmaster of Suttonscliffe in the States, it would be wonderful if you and Draco would be able to come along."

Hermione nodded, it shouldn't be too hard to convince him to come back to school for the evening, even if she had to bribe him sexually to do it.

"I'll do my best to set up the casual meeting with Lucius before then so I can run the whole idea past him. I'm almost positive that he's going to love the plan but still it would be good to take care of it all."

"You are wonderful Hermione, really."

"Thank you Professor."

~*

Time flew by when you were having fun. Unfortunately for Lucius, it wasn't one of those times. He regarded Narcissa's friends as being brain dead and refused to treat them in any manner that wasn't reserved for a misbehaving cocker spaniel.

He was relieved when the house elf entered in and handed him a letter marked urgent, perhaps he would be able to find a reason to escape the giggling hoard of women with too much wine in their systems.

_Mr. Malfoy,_

_I have had a request for a charity event from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and would like to schedule a meeting at the soonest convenient time._

_Draco and myself leave for Paris for two days early tomorrow morning. If you would be able to leave word with my assistant, she will contact me with details._

_Thank you,_

_Hermione Granger_

"What is it dear?" Narcissa looked over at him.

"Oh," He tucked the letter into his robes, "Nothing for you to concern yourself with right now, I would like to go and get some work done though if you don't mind."

"Didn't you hire Draco for a reason?" One of the giggling artificial blondes piped up.

"Yes," Lucius said curtly, "I hired him so that after my birthday he is able to take care of the business and run it as I have the last thirty-five years, until then, I still have a job to do. Excuse me."

He hurried to his office and looked over his meeting list. Hermione wouldn't be available for a meeting until Friday and he had the second half of his stock holders meeting then.

Friday evening was out because he had promised to take Narcissa to the opera and without a doubt, Draco would be drunk before he even left the office. Saturday was completely out as they had the war veterans dinner. He wanted to know as soon as possible and it seemed that Sunday would have to be it.

He sat down at his desk and began to compose a reply that would be sent straight to Hermione's assistant. He asked that both she and Draco attend the manner for Sunday lunch.

* * *

AN: Hi again everyone, thank you very much for all your reviews, I'll be addressing some of your concerns the next time I update. I have some buffer now so I will update around this time each weak and hopefully stamp out long waits for chapters. Hope that you are all well.

~JL


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